TAGBILARAN CITY, Sept. 17 (PIA) -- The province of Bohol gets to showcase the "new normal" for travelers as it hosts the Philippine Travel Exchange (PhiTEx) 2020.
The government’s largest annual travel trade event will be held from Sept. 19 to 28, 2020 in Panglao.
Around 50 participants are coming over for the PhiTEx, which will be composed of sellers and personnel from the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB).
However, there will be some participants in the event that will be joining virtually, said Gov. Arthur Yap.
In a virtual briefing on Sept. 16, 2020, Tourism Promotions Board (TPB) Chief Operating Officer Maria Anthonette Velasco-Allones said Bohol was chosen to showcase the new normal for travelers because "we witnessed for ourselves how Gov. Arthur Yap and the leaders of Bohol successfully managed the pandemic in Panglao.”
Allones said the “hybrid platform” was intended to allow the domestic sellers to “sample how it is to travel in the new normal," with the rest of the participants, including all foreigners, joining the online activities.
“Para mapakita natin sa mga gustong magbiyahe ano ba ang kinahaharap na challenges at excitement in the new normal (This is to show those who want to travel the challenges and excitement they will face in the new normal),” Allones said.
This comes as the government aims to launch “travel bubbles and corridors” – which means allowing visitors from selected safe areas or countries to come in and make them move point-to-point only to pre-accredited establishments.
Yap, during the virtual briefing, stressed the need to “move together” and disclosed that Bohol has already lost P10-B to P12-B during the pandemic.
“What is certain is we cannot meander alone and think we can just survive this crisis by doing nothing,” Yap said.
The governor shared that Bohol had managed to keep the number of active cases in Panglao low because of Oplan Kalasag ni Dagohoy – the operation in which the province was divided into 16 security zones to be monitored by police officers, coastal spotters, and local government unit officials.
The provincial government has also issued some 300,000 family-based contact tracing cards that would be scanned in every establishment.
It also set up laboratories for the polymerase chain reaction swab tests so results could be released in as little as 24 hours.
For visitors, Yap noted that at the airport, they would have to download a mobile application or get a card with a QR code.
Besides contact tracing, the app would help make reservations, do purchases online, buy meals and souvenirs, and “seamlessly allow tourists to take in the ultimate Bohol experience.”
In line with the hosting of the PhiTEx, the medical cluster of the Bohol Inter Agency Task Force (B-IATF) has crafted health and safety protocols that will be used in the duration of the event.
All delegates who will be arriving in Bohol for the event shall undergo a five-day quarantine period prior to the testing for COVID-19 infection through the PCR test. (ecb/PIA7-Bohol)
Source: Philippines Information Agency (pia.gov.ph)
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